A TARDY PARDON.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1945, 19 September 1889, Page 4

A TARDY PARDON.

A prison romance of a very painful character has just been happily brought io a conclusion by the release of the central figure in the drama. Twelve years ago a girl aged seventeen, named Fanny Stallard, living at Chain, a secluded and picturesque part of the Isle of Wight, became tv mother under circumstances sadly like those which have been depicted with such power and pathos by the great authoress who drew Hetty Green in “ Adam Bede.” The child was first put out to nurse, and finding that it was not well treated, Fanny Stallard took it ; away, and made arrangements for her own mother to take charge of it. That Mrs Stallard wes not a very benevolent or amiable woman, may be inferred from the fact that after « few weeks she told her daughter she must have more pay or the child must go. Those words, indirectly, wore the means of bringing Fanny Stallard under sentence of death, and it was no fault of her unfeeling mother that the sentence was not carried into effect. On Wednesday night, March 10th, 1877, Fanny Stallard left bur mother’s house, carrying her babe in her arms. It was a bitter night, and the child was unfit to be out. One of the neighbors subsequently testified that its life was not worth an hour’s purchase. It is supposed that the girl-mother daring her long walk of seven miles, in her anxiety to keep her baby from the biting blast covered its face too closely with the flannel petticoat in which it was wrapped, and when she found it was dead hid the body. She was put on her trial on a charge of wilful murder. Ihere were no friends to employ counsel, and only at the last moment was Mr 0. Matthews, Q. 0., instructed t« appear on her behalf. Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, who tried the case, summed op unfavorably to her, and she was found guilty and sentenced to death. Her life was, however, saved, mainly owing to the heroic exertions of one of her own sex, foeb e in body but keen in intellect and inflexible in determination. Mrs M. C. Houston, a literary lady, residing at Chale, read about the base in a country newspaper, and after making personal inquiries of the neighbors and others, became convinced of the girls’s innocences She set oh foot measures fot saving the girl’s life, in which she was aided by Sir Eardley Wilmct, who induced ninety-six members of Parliament to sign a petition for : a reprieve, and the sentence was changed to penal servitude for life. Still Mrs Houston was not satisfied. She wrote a novel—“ His Besetting Sin ” —and made so many appeals to the successive Home Secretaries, and became so wrought up in the case, that she fell ill. While confined to her room she wrote another book a shilling volume* “ Only a Woman’s Life, by one who saved it.” It was widely read and reviewed, and the Daily Nows published a leading article on the case. Then Mr John Stuart, editor of the Jala of Wight Express, become interested in the matter, and energetically seconded Mrs Houston’s efforts. He went to the House of Commons and saw the At-torney-General, Sir B. E. Webster, who promised to do what he could. Finally, to make a long story fresh evideuce was brought forward telling strongly in favor of the girl’s innocence, petitions in favor of the accused were sent to the Home Office from every hamlet, village, and town in the Jsle of Wight, and the Government, after consulting the judge, granted the prisoner’s release. Fanny Stallard is now in her thirtieth year, free to begin life again under happier auspices, let ns hope, than when she left the outside world for a prison at the ago of seventeen. There are grey hairs now making their appearance on her still young head, her long detention hoving made her, old before her lime. Still her sad story has raised for her many friends, and we may be j sure that they will endeavor to smooth | and brighten the pathway over which | erring feet stumbled so painfully at first. \ The story is a sad one, but its sadness is more than half redeemed by the benevolence and devotion of the noblehearted authoress, with whom wo must all rejoice in the success which has J crowned her labors.-—Exchange. j